Nissan Frontier Truck Bed Off-Road Trailer - The "Frontrailer"

[Redeth005]

thats a pretty cool build man. What else did you incorporate into the trailer other then storage in he bed and a lift? any solar stuff or on board water? i figure if you could fabricate the stuff you made here in these 3 pages id imagine you could defintely add all kinds of cool stuff.

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

Thanks, man! I'm far from done. She was still a full-pickup truck barely over a year ago, and only rolling as a trailer March 2015, and finished the lift/rack system for the tent the end of May, but from there, I was gone on a course out of province from June-Sept, then mid-Oct to mid-Nov on an exercise in Portugal, then she's parked for the winter, and between Xmas, going to Ontario to visit my family for Xmas, and stuff, I've had no time, place and/or money to work on her. I really only have access to the mother-in-laws garage to work on projects when it's spring and she no longer parks her car in the garage, so don't plan on many updates until spring time comes around. Currently I'm working on a level-fold-down-trailer-hitch-spare-tire-carrier for the Xterra, which will transfer over to the trailer when towing the trailer. It's small and simple that I can work on it over the winter, but it's something that I'll need some spring when I swap my winter tires out to my new 33" MTR kevlars waiting for me for spring, and I'll need the carrier for the matching spare tire. AS of last weekend, here's what I got so far.

I'll have to make a mock-up 33" tires on a spare rim to work on it's height and fitament in relation to the truck


As I said, there's PLENTY of work and ideas left. Water tank I have, but I need a way to figure out how to mount it. I picked up a 16Gal tank from Northern Tool which is very close to the same dimensions as the fuel tank, and will be mounted opposing the Nissan fuel tank.

(sorry, no actual pics. I have these saved from my FB page)

And I went with the Martin hot water heater, as opposed to the Eccotemp L5 style heater. It's more compact for the installation I want to do. The L5 is much taller.

For the how water tank, I need to get the front storage box build first to be able to incorporate it into the trailer.

I do want to put a slide-out solar panel between the tent and the tonneau cover, and maybe with the thickness, have 2 and it fold out from on top of the other one, but I can't do that either yet until the storage box is done, with the batteries and a place to put the controller/charger for it. I also want to incorporate an alternator on the differential to help charging the batteries. I do want to run 3 batteries in the trailer. Also get the Wabasto Air Top heater. I want to get a Sunday Campers Foxwing with the shelter for next year, but the Canadian dollar dropped hard.

I've also got ideas for a fold-out kitchen, but wasn't sure how to build it. I think I was stuck on what to use for cooking platforms, which will greatly affect it's design. I think I've decided on 2 Volcano 3 cooking stoves. It gives me the flexibility for BBQ and a stove, or twice to 2 of each. And can even use coal or wood for different cooking methods, or in an emergency, so I really like the flexibility of it.

So plenty of stuff left to do, but especially the awning, heater and electric-to-hydraulic brake controller, those aren't cheap. That's almost $4000 for just those 3 things alone....but little by little i'll get there

 

[Redeth005]

i did a double post...

 

[Redeth005]

Heck yea! im looking forward to seeing you make this stuff. I really hope you post alot of description of how you did the alternator charging system with the trailer differential. That was one of the ideas i had for my trailer. but i just couldnt figure out how i could charge it with a tire or rim. I would still love to use it. because a 100watt solar panel on my trailer most likely wont be enough to charge up 3 batteries and keep up with my daily usage of the Engel Fridge/freezer, heater and small draw of the LED lighting. So i am really looking forward to see how do figure it out. The only way i see this possible is if you welded a pulley onto the diff flange where the drive shaft would normally connect to. then you could weld up some sort of bracket to hold an alternator in place. but as far as my trailer axle application i have a "trailer axle" not a vehicle diff. So it may be alot easier for you to make yours than me to do one for mine.

 

[1store]

I don't know how I miss this. Great looking

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

Heck yea! im looking forward to seeing you make this stuff. I really hope you post alot of description of how you did the alternator charging system with the trailer differential. That was one of the ideas i had for my trailer. but i just couldnt figure out how i could charge it with a tire or rim. I would still love to use it. because a 100watt solar panel on my trailer most likely wont be enough to charge up 3 batteries and keep up with my daily usage of the Engel Fridge/freezer, heater and small draw of the LED lighting. So i am really looking forward to see how do figure it out. The only way i see this possible is if you welded a pulley onto the diff flange where the drive shaft would normally connect to. then you could weld up some sort of bracket to hold an alternator in place. but as far as my trailer axle application i have a "trailer axle" not a vehicle diff. So it may be alot easier for you to make yours than me to do one for mine.

Wow thanks! I'm honestly new to fabricating and welding, but I'm enjoying it. I guess I really got into wanting to make stuff myself cause I had ideas on what I wanted, but they didn't exist, and people looked at me weird for my ideas and they they're not feasible/possible, so I just wanted to say screw it and give it a try myself. Indeed I will! I don't think I need to went the pulley, I forgot to measure, but I want to use a crank pulley, and they nut on the crank and the one on the flange on the diff look the same size, but even if it's close, it'll be easy to make it work. I'd rather spend the funds on other parts of the trailer that need the attention first. Like a crank pulley is $100 itself, but I do have a friend swapping the motor on his truck, so I asked to take one of his crank pullies. The one from the donor truck was siezed, and cracked it in the process of trying to remove it. I just need to then get the alternator and find a belt size, and from there mount a bracket and use a bolt that moves the alternator to tension for the belt...it could be that simple. I'm also wanting to run 3 batteries, to have enough power for whatever trip I have planned and be parked for even a week if I want to and not stress for power, but also in the event that I need to, 3 batteries is perfect for portable welding, where I can take them all from the trailer and I don't have to touch or remove any from my truck. There's always the talk that the batteries could get damaged by welding that way, so if I'm stuck fixing my (or someone else's truck), i'd rather blow a battery on the trailer where it's not a big deal, then one from my truck and be stuck for another reason. Ya, I do get flack for using a truck axle, and I won't argue that it's much heavier, but I want to give it a try cause i see some potential with it, and the extra weight down that low should help to make it less top heavy. I do have 2 batteries in the truck, but with 3 in the trailer, even if and when I make a large wire connection from the truck to the trailer, the alternator, while upgraded to a 165amp, can still only output so much. I could go bigger, but there's only so .big I can go, and I do want to have the trailer be less dependant on the truck for it's systems, and gives me some redundancy

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

You know Redeth005, you got me thinking about the alternator setup and it's charging the last few days, and I had gotten an idea to actually test to see what the slowest speeds that thee alternator would work at, and it would be to test my own truck! Now, I have 4.6 rear end rather then the 4.9 that the trailer has because I'm supercharged, but it means that it'll just spin that little bit faster, but at least it means that for the test I'm overestimating. And I'm on my 265/70/17 winter tires, which is about a 31.6" tires, while the trailer sits on worn 32" and could be about the same, until the trailer, one day, gets on 33's.

Anyway, being a manual, my 4th gear is 1:1, so I put it in 4th gear to see how low I could go before my alternator starts to drop from it's 14v charging rate. The result; I was at 14v at around 30kph/15mph, which means that in regular city driving at 50km/h, it'll actually be plenty able to be spun and to put out a charge, even in 40km/h school zones. I got down to under 20kph/10mph and my voltage was around 12.5v.

So in the end, if I can use the stock crank and alternator pulley, from city to highway driving, it'll charge.

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

Well a bit of an update. Nothing much happening on the trailer front, yet. Worked on the X yesterday by changing the power steering pump and fan clutch, and the next coming weekends I've got tests, then Ontario for my March Break and to bury my grandmother/godmother that passed while I was in Puvirnituq, then Easter while in Ontario, then when we come back, I've got some serious work to do on the girlfriend's Avenger with suspension and brakes that need to get done all around, with a tie rod and a wheel bearing and oil pan gasket in the mix of that. Her car is currently unsafe to drive at the moment. For the trailer, I've made an appointment at the start of April to get the front leaf spring hanger dropped and the coupler raised. I'm not comfortable with my fab and welding skills to do those, so I'd perfer to get it done by a professional, but I'm actually getting anxious to get work started on the trailer. I've got the water tank mount and the tongue box plans in my head. Actually there's a few variants of the tongue box, but that'll clear up with some measurements.


As for parts, I'm taken the gamble and ordered a a Foxwing-style awning from Sunday Campers. I'm going to take the chance and give it a try and order from them. Many reasons, but as much as I would of liked to of ordered a product within North America, I can't find that style here (with the rectangular side section), and for the price, I can get the entire thing, with sides and a floor, for *much* cheaper then getting the smaller one in the style that doesn't suite the function I want. The smallest version is 8ft long, which is *exactly* the length of the entire trailer (which is ironic cause she was *suppose* to be shorter). It may look a bit weird until the tongue box is done, but it'll give a lot of shade and shelter space. The only real negative thing I've read about Sunday Campers is that the leadtime can be 60 rather then 30 days, but it's ordered well ahead of the camping season that it's not a problem. I'll be posting up my experienced with dealing with them and the end result/quality of their product as I go. I was looking into this tent for a while, and was on the verge of placing an order, but the Canadian dollar dropped. They've readjusted their prices just recently, saving me a few hundred, so I went ahead. We've got already 3 camping trips planned for this year, including a trip out East, as well as another two potential camping trips in the works, so it will get plenty of use, and I look forward to it.

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

And this was a surprise package! I thought my stabilizer legs came in from the US, but it's actually my awning from China!

I also dropped the trailer off at the local 4x4 fab shop to get some suspension modifications done to the suspension and get some shocks installed. It should be done sometime next week, roughly.

If I have time, I may attempt to install the awning on the Xterra, because I'm anxious and curious and the weather is suppose to be nice.

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

Time is always on short supply. The weekend 2 weeks ago I had just enough time to get the awning installed on the Xterra, and this past weekend, I had enough time to do a quick test setup in a parking lot, which was a bit of a pain because of the winds and that I wasn't on grass to be able to peg them down. I still need to test the sides and floor, but I'm out of town for a bit.

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

Well some more good progress. I was away on a military exercise for 3 weeks and left the trailer with a local fab shop to do some work on it and finally got her back. Unfortunately it cost me a lot more then I was expecting, but what can you do. I wish I would of done it myself to save the money, but in the end, I am happy it's done and done right and legal.

First was the couple. It was too low and got raised up on top of the tongue. The tongue also got shortened by 3 inches.

Second was the forward leave spring mounts, they were also not low enough, so they got dropped, protecting the fuel tank but also giving the trailer a needed suspension lift.

And finally was the shocks. They installed a crossmemer and modified the plates and installed them inboard as I have, as they did on my Xterra.

With that, it means that the trailer can finally use the receiver on the bumper of the truck, as planned.

But with that, now I need a new spot for my spare tire carrier to go. The plan as to use the receiver on the trailer, but the call it rust-siezed inside. So I decided just to shop it off and put on a new 2.5" tubing. It'll never tow from that receiver anyway.

And later that day, I stopped by an industrial area and picked up a few pallets for a fire me and some friends were having that night.

The trailer got some decent but short off-roading done to get to the fire. I should say with the shocks, it's road manners are so much better that it was definitely worth doing.

Also some parts came in. My 31" BAL C stabilizer legs came in. To install them, what I may end up doing, since they're quite large, is make a whole new rear bumper and hide them inside it.

And some of my LED's from dx.com came it. Waterproof SMD5050 white-only LED rolls. 2 came in, and while I was exercise, I did the math and figured I'd need another 2 rolls, but the order bugged up and in the end, I ordered the same order twice, and should have 4 more coming in. I could of cancelled, but for the price, I'm not bothered, and I'll find a use for them I'm sure!

I did go LED crazy while I was on exercise, cause I also ordered 16x 17cm COB LED lights off of eBay. They'll go on both the truck and the trailer as underbody lights.

And just a note, is that I designed it with a straight tongue rather then an "A", and it goes come in handy.

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

Thanks!

Yesterday evening there was the first Flex & BBQ of the season, so I decided to give the trailer a try and see how it performed!

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

I tried to get some work done this weekend, but with some of the work, caused some extra small challenges, and I wasn't able to get it assembled Suanday night and have to leave it behind. Part of the issue was my friend who helped me have the idea to weld in the inserts that went to mount the top since they were shifting out. Well I didn't think how fun it would be to realign the head of the actuator with the bolt, but also, on one, the second one we tried, there isn't enough gap and we couldn't get the actuator's top to clear to get te bolt through. The next step will be that I'll have to make some "service access holes" to be able to deal with any actuator mounting issues.

Anyway, the point of the weekend was to clean up the rack that supports the top. It was never finished it terms of paint/protection, and few of the mountwere just quickly done and ugly, and some of the holes weren't aligned properly which caused issues with trying to bolt it down since the holes were threaded. So now only have the mounts been cleaned up, but I'm getting rid of the threaded holes idea and have an idea for a better/easier lower bracket with regular bolts.

I don't have and pictures of the rack painted since i had issues with the paint, with having the bright idea to paint then flip, which caused a problem with the primer being sprayed on top of the paint, so I had to sand it down and redo those areas.

While I was dealing with that and waiting for the paint to dry, I had time to start making the rack that will support the water tank. It will go opposing the fuel tank and built to mimic on how the fuel tank mounts and sits. The one issue I saw with that is that is that it sits to close to the axle. It probably clears, but I don't want to take any chances. The problem is that my rack I built is square, while the fuel tank sits on a bracket and sits more forward and also had a rounded bottom. It'll be a fairly easy fix to cut off the back section and angle it rather then have it square.

At the same time, I decided it would be time to paint the underside of the cover. With LED lights in hand, and more to come, it would be good to paint the underside a nice reflective white to help with the lighting.

And at the same time, remove the old tonneau cover lock, fill the hole, and the Frontier's 3rd brake light will be installed there instead

More to come, but I want to get the tent on and spend a night in it this weekend.

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

Well things went wrong and then fixed over the last few days. I went back up Wednesday to finish up putting the top of the trailer by drilling access holes and widening between the mounts to fit in the actuator head, but one of the welded inserts decided it didn't want to thread, so I decided to chase the threads with a tap and had an unusually hard time with doind something so simple. Of course, what happens and what I was praying that I didn't want to happen, the tap snapped off, and right at the end, so I had a 1/2 inch of tap to remove. I tried extracting, punching, welding on a bolt/nut and nothing worked, and spend 3 hours of my evening trying just to get it out one way or another, and without success. After too much time, I finished up the other 2 corners (without problems) and called it quit for the night.

During the day yesterday, I asked a buddy that I work with (ex-mechanic) some suggestions on removing a stuck tap, who then asked some of the mechanics for their suggestions. In the end, he volunteered to come up and help me. His help was absolutely great! He spend some time, but he got it drilled where the point that the welded insert popped right out, which made like super easy after, cause we could easilly just make a new insert

Since I could only sporadically help him without getting in his way, I started work on making an extension for the roof rack so that I could mount the awning. I've been pondering on the idea for the last few weeks and finally came up with this design this week that I thought would look good and not like a cheap hack job. My girlfriend did some errands for me yesterday, one of which was to pick up some tubing for it. Of course they're questioning her and telling her it won't work, since they're thinking that one tub is suppose to go into the other and that it won't work, which it isn't. And they ask her what it's for, for in which I'm told the odd looks of when she's trying to describe the Frontrailer to them. She asks me to call her, run through their details, and I tell her to get the 2 sections of round tubing that I need that they have, that it'll work, and that they need not worry on what it's for or how it'll go together.

It's designed to slide over the existing tubing, but with that, the fairing can't go on. It looks odd, especially without a storage box on the front of the trailer, and might look a bit better once the awning is installed. Currently it's only primed, since that's all I had for paint on hand and for time, and I threw a spray can cover on the end so that rain doesn't get it on the drive back, but I'll get a coat of black paint on it in the next few days... I'd do it tonight but I work until 6pm. And to say it works, my buddy decided to test it by hanging off of it. He's apparently 175lbs and it held solid. Not the way I thought about testing it, but after that, I can say that I'm proud of not only how it works and looks, but that it's solid and that I don't have to worry about it

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

With the support only primed, and already showing signs of wanting to rust, and since I wanted to install the awning asap, I decided, while I had time during an extended lunch, so run out, get some paint and run home and give it a few quick coats. Unfortunately in the rush, I picked up while as opposed to black paint. Not the end of the world, it could of been like pink, but at least it's protected until I can get to it next. And that evening, we packed up and headed up the mount to camp, and the next day, FINALLY installed and actually used the awning.

And the next day at my aunts place, we also finally tested out the sides.

The only "problem" is that my awning is mounted too far inside. I guess it really needs to be close to the end, which makes it need more legth of material so the one corner wasn't connected properly since it was too short. I'll look at moving a bit more towards the outside (there's more adjustment in the brackets) and I'll go from there.